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Palestine Liberation Organization

(Encyclopedia)Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), coordinating council for Palestinian organizations, founded (1964) by Egypt and the Arab League and initially controlled by Egypt. Composed of various guerrill...

Al Fatah

(Encyclopedia)Al Fatah: see Arafat, Yasir; Palestine Liberation Organization. ...

Habash, George

(Encyclopedia)Habash, George, 1925?–2008, Palestinian guerrilla leader. When Israel was established (1948), he fled to Lebanon, where he attended the American Univ. of Beirut (M.D., 1951). He practiced medicine i...

Begin, Menachem

(Encyclopedia)Begin, Menachem mĕnäˈkhĕm bāˈgĭn [key], 1913–92, Zionist leader and Israeli prime minister (1977–83), b. Russia. He became (1938) leader of a Zionist youth movement in Poland, where he also...

Darwish, Mahmoud

(Encyclopedia)Darwish, Mahmoud, 1941–2008, widely considered the Palestinian national poet, b. Barwa, Palestine (now in Israel). He was born to middle-class Sunni Muslim farmers, who were displaced when soldiers ...

Arab League

(Encyclopedia)Arab League, popular name for the League of Arab States, formed in 1945 in an attempt to give political expression to the Arab nations. The original charter members were Egypt, Iraq, Jordan (then know...

Sidon

(Encyclopedia)Sidon sīˈdən [key], ancient city, one of the great seaports of the Phoenicians, on site of present-day Sidon or Saida (1988 est. pop. 38,000), SW Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was one of th...

Palme, Olof

(Encyclopedia)Palme, Olof (Sven Olof Joachim Palme) o͞oˈlôf pälˈmə [key], 1927–86, Swedish political leader, prime minister of Sweden (1969–76, 1982–86). Palme joined the Social Democratic party in 1952...

Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine

(Encyclopedia)Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine zēˈnĕl abĭdēn bĕn älēˈ [key], 1936–2019, president of Tunisia (1987–2011). Educated in France and the United States, he entered the army and became ambassador to ...

Weizman, Ezer

(Encyclopedia)Weizman, Ezer āˈzər vītˈsmän [key], 1924–2005, Israeli military officer and politician, president of Israel (1993–2000), b. Tel Aviv. A nephew of Chaim Weizmann, he helped found the Israeli ...
 

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